October 8, 2024
Dear Lycoming College Community Members,
On behalf of the Presidential Search Committee, I am happy to report that the next phase of the search for the 16th president of Lycoming College is about to get underway. Within the coming days, the team from Academic Search will begin soliciting and accepting applications for the Lycoming College presidency.
As we begin the search, I want to note that the Board of Trustees is committed to conducting it in a manner that is as inclusive as possible while also allowing us to attract the strongest possible pool of candidates for consideration. To that end, the Board has made a significant change from previous searches to the work and charge of the Search Committee. For this presidential search, the Search Committee is charged with being involved in the entire search process, vetting candidates throughout, and making the recommendation of a single candidate to the Board for consideration as the next President for Lycoming College. Thus, the Committee was carefully chosen to be representative of the Lycoming College community. In that spirit, I am pleased to announce the addition of a staff member, Misty Palmatier, Director of Counseling Services, to the Search Committee previously announced. As a reminder, a full list of Committee members is available on the Presidential Search webpage.
In order to attract and allow talented and visible leaders to explore the Lycoming presidency, the Board of Trustees has opted for a confidential search. This means there will not be campus-wide open meetings with finalist candidates. Instead, we will invite a select group of Lycoming constituents who are not on the Committee to participate in confidential conversations with the finalists and provide their feedback to the Committee. The composition of this group ultimately will be determined by the Search Committee, but may include a small number of faculty and others who will be asked to make the same commitment to confidentiality as the Search Committee. We hope this approach will find balance between the candidates’ interests for confidentiality and the desire to have some greater campus engagement in the process. We are confident that this approach to the search will provide us the strongest pool of candidates, and our colleagues from Academic Search have shared that this is the most common approach to presidential search today.
We have already benefited from campus engagement in the earliest stages of the search. The campus community’s participation in the survey and on-campus meetings with Academic Search has significantly enhanced the search process. The insights gleaned from the survey and meetings have been invaluable in helping inform the Search Committee’s understanding of the skills, attributes, and important work ahead for our next president. Working collaboratively with Academic Search, we have prepared a search profile to provide an overview of Lycoming College, outline the key priorities and institutional needs, and describe the desired qualities and characteristics for our next president. The search profile will be used to introduce Lycoming and the presidential opportunity to prospective candidates.
The formal recruiting process will begin with Academic Search publishing the position in a wide variety of online publications. Over the coming weeks and months, Academic Search will identify candidates, actively encourage promising candidates to apply, and receive applications. If you know of someone whom you would like to recommend, please send their name and contact information directly to LycomingPresident@academicsearch.org.
The Search Committee will begin reviewing applications in January shortly before the January 13, 2025 deadline. We are excited about this work and have confidence the search will bring us a dynamic and inspiring leader who will strategically build on the momentum and success of the past decades and strengthen Lycoming for the future.
We will provide periodic progress updates, which will be emailed to the campus community and posted on the Presidential Search webpage at https://www.lycoming.edu/presidential-search/.
Your support and contributions to date are greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Don Hughes ‘72
Trustee & Chair, Presidential Search Committee